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IEEE Transactions on Information Theory

Low-Depth Flagged Syndrome Extraction for Calderbank-Shor-Steane Codes of Distance 3

Chao Du, Zhi Ma, Yiting Liu, Hong Wang, Qianheng Duan

Published Jul 10, 2024• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In this work, we present a low-depth flagged syndrome extraction strategy for Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS) codes of distance 3. We demonstrate that if one stabilizer generator of a distance-3 CSS code measured using the flagged circuit has and only has two distinct qubit supports with certain stabilizers of opposite types, then the number of stabilizers required for the second round of measurements can be reduced. The number of these stabilizers depends on the weight of the measured generator. This novel strategy utilizes past syndrome information and elements from the stabilizer group, enabling the implementation of a flag-FTEC protocol for distance-3 CSS codes with lower-depth syndrome extraction circuits compared to previously flag fault-tolerant protocol if the total weight of these stabilizers is less than that of stabilizer generators. Based on our strategy, we also improve the flag-FTEC protocol for cyclic CSS codes of distance 3, which requires fewer stabilizer measurements. We utilize the$[[{14,2,3}]]$CSS code,$[[{15,1,3}]]$quantum Reed-Muller code and$[[{15,7,3}]]$cyclic CSS code to demonstrate how the strategy operates. Furthermore, we also provide a low-depth flagged syndrome extraction strategy for a$[[{19,1,5}]]$CSS-type code.

DOI
10.1109/tit.2024.3425853

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In this work, we present a low-depth flagged syndrome extraction strategy for Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS) codes of distance 3. We demonstrate that if one stabilizer generator of a distance-3 CSS code measured using the flagged circuit has and only has two distinct qubit supports with certain stabilizers of opposite types, then the number of stabilizers required for the second round of measurements can be reduced. The number of these stabilizers depends on the weight of the measured generator. This novel strategy utilizes past syndrome information and elements from the stabilizer group, enabling the implementation of a flag-FTEC protocol for distance-3 CSS codes with lower-depth syndrome extraction circuits compared to previously flag fault-tolerant protocol if the total weight of these stabilizers is less than that of stabilizer generators. Based on our strategy, we also improve the flag-FTEC protocol for cyclic CSS codes of distance 3, which requires fewer stabilizer measurements. We utilize the[[14,2,3]][[{14,2,3}]][[14,2,3]]CSS code,[[15,1,3]][[{15,1,3}]][[15,1,3]]quantum Reed-Muller code and[[15,7,3]][[{15,7,3}]][[15,7,3]]cyclic CSS code to demonstrate how the strategy operates. Furthermore, we also provide a low-depth flagged syndrome extraction strategy for a[[19,1,5]][[{19,1,5}]][[19,1,5]]CSS-type code.
To perform achieve fault-tolerant quantum computation, one can use flagged syndrome extraction with fewer ancilla qubits. However, it suffers from long circuit depth if one stabilizer is measured at a time. Previously, Reichardt showed that it is possible to measure multiple stabilizers with at most one shared flag qubit for certain small quantum codes. In this paper, we propose a procedure for general Calderbank-Shor-Steane codes of distance three so that multiple ZZZ stabilizers (XXX stabilizers) can be fault tolerantly measured in parallel with one shared flag qubit. We simulate the memory and computation pseudothresholds for various code schemes. In particular, our parallel scheme based on Shor's nine-qubit code performs better than known seven- and nine-qubit schemes in the literature.
Flag qubits have recently been proposed in syndrome extraction circuits to detect high-weight errors arising from fewer faults. The use of flag qubits allows the construction of fault-tolerant protocols with the fewest number of ancillas known to date. In this work, we prove some critical properties of Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS) codes constructed from classical cyclic codes that enable the construction of a flag fault-tolerant error correction scheme. We then develop fault-tolerant protocols as well as a family of circuits for flag fault-tolerant error correction and operator measurement, requiring only four ancilla qubits and applicable to cyclic CSS codes of distance 3. The measurement protocol can be further used for logical Clifford gate implementation via quantum gate teleportation. We also provide examples of cyclic CSS codes with large encoding rates.
Given that quantum error correction processes are unreliable, an efficient error syndrome extraction circuit should use fewer ancillary qubits, quantum gates, and measurements, while maintaining low circuit depth, to minimizing the circuit area, roughly defined as the product of circuit depth and the number of physical qubits. We propose to design parallel flagged syndrome extraction with shared flag qubits for quantum stabilizer codes. Versatile parallelization techniques are employed to minimize the required circuit area, thereby improving the error threshold and overall performance. Specifically, measurement outcomes across multiple rounds of syndrome extraction are integrated into a lookup table decoder, enabling parallelization of multiple stabilizer measurements with shared flag qubits. Additionally, we introduce an adaptive technique to reduce the overhead from excessive syndrome extraction. We present flag-sharing and fully parallel schemes for the[ ⁣[17,1,5] ⁣][\![17,1,5]\!][[17,1,5]],[ ⁣[19,1,5] ⁣][\![19,1,5]\!][[19,1,5]]Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS) codes and the[ ⁣[5,1,3] ⁣][\![5,1,3]\!][[5,1,3]]non-CSS code, where the[ ⁣[5,1,3] ⁣][\![5,1,3]\!][[5,1,3]]implementation achieves the minimum known circuit area. Numerical simulations have demonstrated improved pseudo-thresholds for these codes by up to an order of magnitude compared to previous schemes in the literature.
Flag-style fault-tolerance has become a linchpin in the realization of small fault-tolerant quantum-error correction experiments. The flag protocol's utility hinges on low qubit over-head, which is typically much smaller than in other approaches. However, as in most fault-tolerance protocols, the advantages of flag-style error correction come with a tradeoff: fault tolerance can be guaranteed, but such protocols involve high-depth circuits, due to the need for repeated stabilizer measurements. Here, we demonstrate that a dynamic choice of stabilizer measurements, based on past syndromes, and the utilization of elements from the full stabilizer group, leads to flag protocols with lower-depth syndrome-extraction circuits for the [[5], [1], [3]] code, as well as for the Steane code when compared to the standard methods in flag fault tolerance. We methodically prove that our new protocols yield fault-tolerant lookup tables, and demonstrate them with a pseudothreshold simulation, showcasing large improvements for all protocols when compared to previously-established methods. This work opens the dialogue on exploiting the properties of the full stabilizer group for reducing circuit overhead in fault-tolerant quantum-error correction.
Fault-tolerant quantum error correction (FTEC) protocol is one of the most important components for a fault-tolerant simulation of a quantum circuit. It helps prevent error accumulation during the process which may cause the computation to fail. In a physical implementation of fault-tolerant circuits, the number of required ancilla qubits for the FTEC protocol can be a major concern because it grows exponentially as the level of concatenation increases whereas the resources are limited. Recently, the idea of using flag qubits to detect high-weight errors caused by fewer faults in syndrome extraction circuits has been proposed. The use of flag qubits allows the construction of fault-tolerant protocols with the fewest number of ancillas known to-date. In this work, some critical properties of CSS codes constructed from classical cyclic codes that enable the construction of a flag fault-tolerant error correction scheme are proved, and a fault-tolerant protocol along with a family of circuits for flag fault-tolerant error correction are given. The flag-FTEC protocol proposed in this work requires only four ancilla qubits and applicable to CSS codes of distance 3 constructed from classical cyclic codes.
Reliable quantum computation requires fault-tolerant protocols to prevent errors from propagating during syndrome extraction in quantum error correction. We present a novel fault-tolerant syndrome extraction technique for CSS codes, which we refer to as the cut-cat state scheme. While each ancilla qubit interacts non-fault-tolerantly with a pair of data qubits, we introduce additional cat stabilizer measurements to identify and correct the resulting hook errors. Our approach maintains the key benefit of cat-based extraction, i.e., parallelized data qubit interactions, while reducing the number of simultaneous qubits required by more than half. Compared to flag-based state-of-the-art protocols, the cut-cat scheme offers a notable advantage in terms of two-qubit gate count as the code distance increases.